CHAPTER XII THE NEW TESTAMENT 355 1109 and third missionary tours, but probably not through as Essenism differed from Phariseeism, or as legalism the valley of the Lycus. Luke does not say that he estab- differs from mysticism. The Colossian heresy was an Eslished churches there, and Paul himself seems to include senic and ascetic type of Gnosticism; it derived its ritualthe Colossians and Laodiceans among those who had istic and practical elements from Judaism, its speculative not seen his face in the flesh.1110 He names Epaphras, of elements from heathenism; it retained circumcision, the Colossae, his “dear fellow-servant” and “fellow-prison- observance of Sabbaths and new moons, and the distincer,” as the teacher and faithful minister of the Christians tion of meats and drinks; but it mixed with it elements of in that place.1111 But during his long residence in Ephesus oriental mysticism and theosophy, the heathen notion of (a.d. 54–57) and from his imprisonment he exercised a an evil principle, the worship of subordinate spirits, and general supervision over all the churches in Asia. After an ascetic struggle for emancipation from the dominhis death they passed under the care of John, and in the ion of matter. It taught an antagonism between God and second century they figure prominently in the Gnostic, matter and interposed between them a series of angelic Paschal, Chiliastic, and Montanistic controversies. mediators as objects of worship. It thus contained the esPaul heard of the condition of the church at Colossae sential features of Gnosticism, but in its incipient and ruthrough Epaphras, his pupil, and Onesimus, a runaway dimental form, or a Christian Essenism in its transition slave. He sent through Tychicus (Col. 4:7) a letter to the to Gnosticism. In its ascetic tendency it resembles that church, which was also intended for the Laodiceans of the weak brethren in the Roman congregation (Rom. (4:16); at the same time he sent through Onesimus a pri- 14:5, 6, 21). Cerinthus, in the age of John, represents a vate letter of commendation to his master, Philemon, a more developed stage and forms the link between the member of the church of Colossae. He also directed the Colossian heresy and the post-apostolic Gnosticism.1113 Colossians to procure and read “the letter from LaThe Refutation. 1112 odicea,” which is most probably the evangelical EpisPaul refutes this false philosophy calmly and respecttle to the Ephesians which was likewise transmitted fully by the true doctrine of the Person of Christ, as the through Tychicus. He had special reasons for writing to one Mediator between God and men, in whom dwells the Colossians and to Philemon, and a general reason for all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And he meets the writing to all the churches in the region of Ephesus; and false asceticism based upon the dualistic principle with he took advantage of the mission of Tychicus to secure the doctrine of the purification of the heart by faith and both ends. In this way the three Epistles are closely con- love as the effectual cure of all moral evil. nected in time and aim. They would mutually explain The Gnostic and the Pauline Pleroma. and confirm one another. “Pleroma” or “fulness” is an important term in CoThe Colossian Heresy. lossians and Ephesians.1114 Paul uses it in common with The special reason which prompted Paul to write to 1113 On the Colossian heresy I refer chiefly to Neanthe Colossians was the rise of a new heresy among them der (I. 319 sqq.), the lectures of Bleek (pp. 11-19), and the which soon afterward swelled into a mighty and danvaluable Excursus of Lightfoot, Com., pp. 73-113, who agrees gerous movement in the ancient church, as rationalism with Neander and Bleek, but is more full. Lightfoot refutes the has done in modern times. It differed from the Judaizing view of Hilgenfeld (Der Gnosticismus u. das N. Test., in the heresy which he opposed in Galatians and Corinthians, “Zeitschrift für wissensch. Theol.,” vol. XIII. 233 sqq.), who 1109 Acts 16:6 (τὴν Φρυγίαν καὶ Γαλατικὴν χώραν); 18:23. 1110 Col. 2:1; comp. 1:4, 8, 9; and Lightfoot, Com., pp. 23 sqq. and 238. 1111 Col. 1:7; 4:12; comp. Philem 23. Hilgenfeld (p. 663) thinks that Paul founded those churches, and uses this as an argument against the genuineness of the Epistle which implies the contrary. But how easily could a forger have avoided such an apparent contradiction.
1112 Col. 4:16: τὴν ἐκ Λαοδικαίας ἵνα καὶ ὑμεις α ναγνωτε. An abridged expression for “the letter left at Laodicea which you will procure thence.” So Bleek and Lightfoot, in loco.
maintains that the Ep. opposes two different heresies, pure Gnosticism (Col. 2:8-10) and pure Judaism (2:16-23). Comp. his Einleitung, pp. 665 sqq. The two passages are connected by τὰ στοιχεια του κόσμου(2:8 and 2:20), and the later history of Gnosticism shows, in a more developed form, the same strange mixture of Judaizing and paganizing elements. See the chapter on Gnosticism in the second volume.
1114 The word πλήρωμα, from πληρουν, to fill, to complete, occurs eighteen times in the New Test., thirteen times in the Epistles of Paul (see Bruder). It designates the result of the action implied in the verb, i.e., complement, completeness, plenitude, perfection; and, in a wider sense (as in John 1:16;
